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A key characteristic of any trade bloc is its “flexibility” – the extent to which it can be
modified or augmented by existing members. This paper investigates how
prospective trade bloc members value the flexibility of proposed trade agreements in
a changing trading environment. We demonstrate that country characteristics as well
as the nature of the trade shock influence a nation’s desire for trade bloc flexibility.
Our model of endogenous coalition formation yields predictions that are consistent
with three stylized facts which characterize regionalism: (i) overlapping trade
agreements, (ii) the popularity of free trade areas relative to customs unions and (iii)
renegotiation or disbandment of existing trade agreements is rare. Finally, for the first
time in the literature, we provide clear predictions about the identity of “hub” and
“spoke” trade bloc members when overlapping free trade areas arise in equilibrium.

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In European Welfare States, low-skilled workers are typically unionized, while the wage formation of high-skilled workers is more competitive. To focus on this aspect, we analyze how flexible international outsourcing and labour taxation affect wage formation, employment and welfare in dual domestic labour markets. Higher productivity of outsourcing, lower cost of outsourcing and lower factor price of outsourcing increase wage dispersion between the high-skilled and low-skilled workers. Increasing wage tax progression of low-skilled workers decreases the wage rate and increases the labour demand of low-skilled workers. It decreases the welfare of lowskilled workers and increases both the welfare of high-skilled workers and the profit of firms.

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‘Flexicurity’ is a controversial concept but at the core is the delicate balancing act between matching labour market security and flexibility. Labour market flexibility is usually captured by contractual flexibility but can also relate to internal flexibility through adaptation of working time. On the security side there is i) job security’ commonly measured through the strictness of employment protection legislation (EPL) ii) employment security provided by active labour market policies or life-long learning and iii) income or social security. In recent years European countries have seen a trend from job security to employment security with limited focus on social security. The challenge of matching security and flexibility is key to young people’s effective and sustainable integration in the labour market. As such policies labelled as ‘flexicurity’ have, in principle, much to offer young people. However, the implementation of flexibility and security policies have tilted towards flexibility, with heightened risks for young people starting work on flexible contracts.
This project conducted a comprehensive exploration of policy and outcomes on the flexibility-security interface for young people. Firstly, we identified the institutional configurations and related outcomes for young people across EU countries. Secondly, we assessed the early labour market experiences of youth with a specific focus on the quality of their employment and the impact of the parental household. Thirdly, we analysed the impact of configurations of “flexicurity” policies on young people’s objective and subjective insecurity and their well-being. Finally, we explored developments in employment policy making before, during and after the crisis with a particular focus on ‘flexicurity’ and youth.

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Although a strategy, in theory, should help the organization to move in the same
direction by showing a direction for the organization, in practice the strategy
increases the number of possible paths, as managers translate the strategy into their
own context. This increases the number of strategies in the organization, and it
becomes difficult to get an overview of the interaction and relationships between the
translated strategies.
The managers distinguish between the different parts of the strategy, such as the
abstract words or intention, and the concrete as targets and projects. Managers use
the various parts of the strategy in different contexts, but still speak about "strategy"
even if they have changed dimension like the words and KPIs.
Another dimension is that the managers also perceive the strategy as correct, but
irrelevant, which is linked to their distinction between the abstract and the concrete in
the strategy. The abstract dimension is perceived as being true, while the effet of the
strategy may be irrelevant for certain managers.
The strategy is also used as documentation for senior management intentions. This
allows other players to gain insight into top management's thinking, take
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countermeasures, resist in an elegant way, or just prepare to argue his case within
the logic of the strategy.

The dissertation explores how cultural production is unfolding at Roskilde Festival
– the biggest music- and culture festival in Denmark. The overall question being
adressed is how the festival is assembled. The question is explored through four
subquestions related to the cultural expressions, identity and materiality of the
festival.
The first part of the dissertation investigates the specificity of the festival’s audience-
based culture. The symbolic and historical connections between the festival
and the 1960s’ cultural activism is argued to be of an importance to the socioaesthetics,
performed jointly by audience as well as performers.
The dissertation further investigates how the identity of the festival is being negotiated
between a number of different commercial and cultural actors: sponsors,
volunteers and artists among others. The many different economic and cultural
practices and values converge when the festival ground is being transformed from
anonymous space to festival space embracing both cultural and commercial content.
In this regard the dissertation investigates how the valuebased economic
logics of subcultural production is debated and negotiated during the pratices of
materializing space. It is argued that the complexity of the festival identity adds
to the credibility of the festival and its many different producers.
The second part of the dissertation is a socio-material analysis of two festival
projects. One is the hybrid festival area Cosmopol, the other is the Orange Stage
area. The analyses are based on a research agenda developed by the Actor-
Network-Theory (ANT) which explores how ideas are materialised through proceses
of interaction, translation and involvement. The explorations explain how subcultural
attitudes, practices of transgression and oppositional identity are distributed
through an ephemeral network of actors including humans (volunteers, artists,
performers) and things (scenes, art works, graffiti, pictures and music) which forge
performative alliances with the festival audience.

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International Competition and Industrial Districts in the Italian Fottwear Industry

Lorentzen, Jochen(København, 2003)

[Flere oplysninger]

[Færre oplysninger]

Resume:

ABSTRACT
The paper analyses the effect on manufacturers in Italy’s footwear districts of international competition, and investigates the underresearched nature of the link between international competition and the internal cohesion of districts. It addresses if and how global competition provokes the (partial) geographic fragmentation of local supply chains, dislocating select local parts manufacturers in its wake. The findings suggest that when international competition threatens the viability of local production, firms with the requisite organisational capabilities delocalise parts of the value chain. This helps them to retain competitive advantages but it also reduces agglomeration. This insight should inform regional development policy.
Keywords: Industrial districts, footwear industry, international competition, delocalisation

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E-business is marching on in several markets, but not in one important one: the grocery market. The
lesson learned in the last ten, fifteen years, from brick-and-mortar supermarkets going online, is,
that it is very difficult to profit from digitalizing the daily buying of groceries.
All consumption research shows that online grocery business still has a lot of
functional, e.g. technical and sensory, disadvantages to offline ditto. Apparently it is not much
easier to plan, choose and buy groceries online than in the traditional retailer/supermarket. Some of
the relative few experienced grocery consumers supports the theory that one may save some time
and effort getting ones groceries packed and delivered, but to the majority this is obviously just not
good enough, especially when accounting the delivery fee.
However, the functional disadvantage explanation cannot stand alone as an answer to
why online grocery business is not more of a success - and it may even be overrated. New sales
channels have always had the "disadvantage" of not functioning like/as good as the old ones. To
me, another interesting issue to the subject seems to be about consumer values and how their
practising is not supported in this new sales channel....

This paper tests whether accurate sales forecasts for Nike are possible from Facebook data and how events related to Nike affect the activity on Nike’s Facebook pages. The paper draws from the AIDA sales framework (Awareness, Interest, Desire,and Action) from the domain of marketing and employs the method of social set analysis from the domain of computational social science to model sales from Big Social Data. The dataset consists of (a) selection of Nike’s Facebook pages with the number of likes, comments, posts etc. that have been registered for each page per day and (b) business data in terms of quarterly global sales figures published in Nike’s financial reports. An event study is also conducted using the Social Set Visualizer (SoSeVi). The findings suggest that Facebook data does have informational value. Some of the simple regression models have a high forecasting accuracy. The multiple regressions have a lower forecasting accuracy and cause analysis barriers due to data set characteristics such as perfect multicollinearity. The event study found abnormal activity around several Nike specific events but inferences about those activity spikes, whether they are purely event-related or coincidences, can only be determined after detailed case-bycase text analysis. Our findings help assess the informational value of Big Social Data for a company’s marketing strategy, sales operations and supply chain.

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The 1990s have been a period of extraordinary politics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This chapter discusses how the transition from state to market has created bureaucratic barriers to entry, but also windows of opportunity for foreign direct investment (FDI). The high costs and high investment risks associated with FDI in CEE are a reflection the institutional development. Thus, inflows of FDI have been largest in those countries that made most progress in establishing a market-oriented institutional framework.
After outlining trends of institutional change and their impact on FDI, this chapter discusses how aspects of the institutional framework and FDI policy affect diverse types of investment projects. Acquisition and Greenfield investors are concerned with different aspects of government policy: privatization and regulatory policies for acquirers and investment incentives, regional policy and special economic zones for Greenfield investors. The shifting policy priorities have thus changed the types of projects undertaken by foreign investors in the region.

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Little is known about impact of FDI on economic development in Africa compared to other developing countries, which the paper seeks to address by focusing on examples of impact in Mali and South Africa. The arugment put forward is that the impact has to be identified at the level of the industry or sector and the level of the firm with regard to employment effect, income generation and skills development. The mining and electricity and railway sectors in Mali are investigated and compared to the automobile industry in South Africa. The paper ends with suggestions for future investigations which can shed more light on the pertinent issues about impact of FDI in Africa.

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This study examines the differential response of various international financial flows to the post 9/11 episode of terrorism in the context of a South Asian country. Using monthly data for the period from January 2003 to December 2014, we analyze the impact of terrorism in Pakistan on the inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio investments, and migrant remittances. We find that FDI decreases substantially as a result of terrorist activity, whereas portfolio investments show little change. In contrast, migrant remittances show a significant increase. These differences are also evident in financial flows from major source regions and top sending countries. The results are robust to the use of alternative definitions and indicators of terrorism as well as the inclusion of various macroeconomic variables. These findings indicate that foreign private capital flees an economy suffering from terrorism whereas migrant remittances are the only financial flows that increase during difficult times.